Can you teach character? The New York Times magazine this weekend ponders the question with the head of New York City's branch of the Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP. Read it here.

KIPP runs nine schools in New Orleans with about 2,500 students -- add schools run by former KIPP administrators and that figure climbs substantially -- so lessons learned in New York about how to instill character will likely make their way to the Big Easy.

MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE At KIPP: Central City school, kindergarten students exercise with dance during morning assembly on Tuesday, February 1, 2011.

The author of the Times magazine piece is Paul Tough, who wrote a helpful overview of the post-Katrina school system in New Orleans back in 2008. Read it here.